


A Bit Extra

by Adoxographish



Series: Soul-Monitor Stories [1]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 01:12:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18084551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adoxographish/pseuds/Adoxographish
Summary: To those who've yet to meet their soulmate, they must wear a wristband, or Soul-Monitor, to keep them stable. Once the designated pair has achieved mutual love for one another, the S.M. becomes useless and can be removed. The price of taking it off prematurely can result in many things; differing from person to person, but death is not uncommon.Jack Kelly has gone his whole life colorblind except for any brown-hazel color. Without his S.M., blindness takes hold of his life. Charlie "Crutchie" Morris is anomaly; with seemingly normal functions plagued by the knowledge that without his S.M., any pain he feels is everlasting.(I suck at this, just F.Y.I. I'm better at writing stories not summaries ^ ~ ^)





	A Bit Extra

**Author's Note:**

> Oof, I really hate this
> 
> Like ^ ~ ^ nuuuuuu

“I’m telling you, it’s pointless - nothing ever happens,” Jack stated as firm as he was grinning.

“And  _ I’m  _ telling _ you, _ that you never know. Something might,” his best friend, Crutchie, retorted with an equally pearlescent smile.

“It doesn’t work like that.”

“It can’t hurt to try.”

“It can’t hurt  _ me.  _ If this works...what will you do, then?” Jack queried, looking upon Crutchie’s mouth curl into a slight frown; fully aware that any mention of his condition was enough to set him spiraling into a mellowness the latter would never show. “To see the same - or time - or place, even - you’d be at risk of getting seriously hurt. Who knows what shenanigans you got into as a toddler?”

“I’m aware...but...it’d still be nice to know. And maybe my state isn’t as bad as everyone says. Maybe it’s given me some extreme pain endurance,” he said with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

“Your S.M. does that, I’m afraid. You, on the other hand, are a little marshmallow standing awfully close to an open flame.”

“Just turn it off, would ya’,” Crutchie laughed.

Jack spat out a sigh - which usually happened to say he won the debate - and with two fingers adjusted a small dial and subsequently, the monitor shut down. As it powered off, Jack’s vision came to a halt as his colorblindness faded into true blindness. He quivered at first, but regained footing as he grew accustomed to the slate of nothingness he saw. 

On Crutchie’s perspective, rather than show a still line on the small half-inch screen, he noticed it instead displayed nothing. Crutchie - too - laid out a sigh in response. The name of another person’s soulmate can only be seen by the other half. Crutchie had long wanted to see what lucky person Jack would end up with enough that his ignorance to common logic had dictated his actions. At least, now he wouldn’t have to so the same and risk being vulnerable. Much like how Crutchie would never show anyone his weaknesses - both mentally and physically - his emotions were fair game as well. 

His fear often got the better of him in those cases, especially ones involving his S.M. On few occasions has he been threatened to take it off; the Delancey Brothers in their Sophomore year being the most recent. Years prior, an unknown assailant - still unknown today - damaged Crutchie’s leg when he broke his first S.M. As iterated previously, any pain he received without the protection his monitor provided, was permanent. Not even a new S.M. could quell his suffering, so...amputation was - unfortunately - the only option. His anxiety towards taking off his S.M. was triggered from that incident henceforth.

Crutchie would counter anyone’s burst of sympathy with his usual spiel of,  _ ‘Oh, it’s fine. On the bright side, I got a pretty sweet prosthetic in the process!’ _

Crutchie would never let anyone see his weaknesses. That much his friends knew, so anything overly positive would be taken with a grain of salt.

As Jack fiddled with the dial until he could see again, he noticed Crutchie looking a tad melancholy. Since he figured consoling him wouldn’t work, he tried to change the subject best he could - by throwing a crumpled napkin at him.

When it made contact and kept flying between the two boys in attempts to one-up the other, Crutchie’s sadness subsided to glee. His smile returned and that was enough to make Jack content and satisfied. Some might say, even giddy.

“So no name, I take it,” Jack questioned through chuckles.

“No, but don’t let that get your spirits down. We’ve still got over half a century at least to find you that special someone.”

“Out of a whole damn planet of eight billion people on seven continents and thousands of countries with millions of cities. I’m sure we’ll find them.”

“7.6 billion, actually. And second of all, your soulmate is supposed to be within reach. The chances your soulmate is halfway across the world is usually slim compared to everyone else - I mean, just look at Spot and Race.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the story: they met in high school and through a dare they were both unprepared to lose, kissed and that was that.”

“I believe their S.M.s malfunctioned and when they weren’t affected by their usual ailments, they knew they were the ones for each other.”

“Yeah. That’s what I said.”

Jack was like Crutchie in the respect that neither of them would ever share their insecurities with others. Crutchie rarely spoke up about his issues and same with Jack in regards to his doubts about finding love; but all incidents were when they confided in each other. Since they were freshmen in high school, that kind of bond makes them set for life with an unbreakable friendship.

But Crutchie and Jack also had this unspoken and unrealized feeling towards the other that might change their entire foundation; yet, ignorance does wonders for curiosity - in the case that no one dared move from their comfortable spots in hopes of something more.


End file.
